LAURINBURG — Downtown Laurinburg is going to smoking on April 14 and 15 with the first Suds and Swine BBQ Festival.

The festival will be part of the North Carolina Pork Association Whole Hog competition circuit where professional grill teams follow strict sets of rules when cooking the hogs before being judged.

According to Scotland County Tourism Development Authority Executive Director Cory Hughes, the professional division is already filled with 17 teams.

“While this is part of a larger competition we still wanted to get the community involved so we’ve opened up registration for the General McArthur’s Backyard Barbecue Competition,” Hughes said. “We have room for five teams and we’re expecting it to fill up very quickly … we’re really excited to get to see some of our local people get to show off their barbecue skills.”

The local competition will have a cash prize of $400 for the first-place winner, $200 for the second-place winner and $100 for the third-place winner.

Hughes added students at Scotland High School will also be participating as they’ve opened it up to the school to have its own competition likely cooking items like hot dogs.

“We really want this to be an inclusive event for the community,” Hughes said. “We didn’t want this to just be a professional cooking event and not be able to get more locals involved so we wanted to bring in as many smaller competitions as we could and we’re hoping to be able to add more next year.”

The festival is set to be a family-friendly event with some activities for the kids as well as dessert vendors on Saturday with the main food focus being the BBQ, which can be ordered by the pound or as a sandwich.

“We’re going to be making it available for purchase online,” Hughes said. “We wanted to make it as convenient as possible so people can order what they want online and they’ll get a QR code we’ll scan at the tent and they’ll get their food.”

Hughes added the professional event is being sponsored by Smithfield’s Hog Production, who are donating whole hogs to be cooked.

“We have some amazing partners helping us with this event and we wouldn’t be able to do it without the Rotary Club of Laurinburg, the Chamber of Commerce and the city,” Hughes said. “We’re all really excited about having this event in downtown Laurinburg and we hope to get a good crowd so that we can continue having this festival.”

The stage will be sponsored by Gibson Oil and see three bands total including Jim Quick and Coastline.

“We’re really excited to be having some local bands performing for our first Suds and Swine Festival,” said Chamber of Commerce Director Chris English. “On Friday Jim Quick and Coastline will be performing from 6 to 9 p.m. and on Saturday we’ll be having the Red Bluff Ramblers playing from 9:30 to 11 a.m.”

English added following the Red Bluff Ramblers will be a newcomer to Scotland County, the Matt Craine Band will play from noon to 3 p.m.

“We’re really excited about having the Matt Craine Band playing for us for the first time,” English said. “They’re known for southern rock and high-octane blues so we feel like they’ll be a good fit for the festival on Saturday and we’re looking forward to seeing them perform.”

To sign up for the local competition visit suds-swine-competition.com and for more information on the festival visit suds-swine.com.